Saturday, December 10, 2011

Russian Protests

From CNN: "Between 20,000 and 25,000 protesters had gathered in the capital, Moscow, Ria Novosti said Saturday, citing police. There have been no reports of unrest and security has been tight. Vladimir Ryzhkov, co-chairman of the Party of People's Freedom, said 40,000 people had massed and some 10,000 were headed to the main protest venue, the news agency reported."

2. What the Media Says: From CBS/AP: "Hundreds of people, were arrested in smaller protests earlier in the week. Some, including prominent opposition blogger Alexei Navalny, were sentenced to 15 days in jail."

What the Media Doesn't Tell You: Alexei Navalny, defended by Neo-Con, Fortune 500 think-tank (page 18) Henry Jackson Foundation, was the co-founder of US NED-funded "Da!" or "Democratic Alternative." Fellow co-founder Mariya Gaydar would coordinate activities with another US NED-funded movement, the Moscow Helsinki Group which heads the "Strategy 31" campaign led by another "prominent" activist mentioned throughout the Western media, Ilya Yahsin.3.What the Media says:

From the London Telegraph: "Russian elections: Boris Nemtsov calls for vote rerun. Boris Nemtsov, a high profile figure in the country's liberal opposition movement, was one of those arrested during an anti-Kremlin protest on Tuesday night. He has since been released."

What the Media Doesn't Tell You: Boris Nemtsov leads the Russian "People's Freedom Party" with the above mentioned, US-NED collaborator Vladimir Ryzhkov. Besides being in the same party, Nemtsov's political adviser Vladimir Kara-Murza (of Solidarnost), recently took part in a September 14, 2011 NED-sponsored event titled, "Elections in Russia: Polling and Perspectives."

4. What the Media Says: From the Guardian, Comment is Free: "Having worked for Golos, Russia's only independent election monitoring organisation, for more than eight years, I never dreamed the president's administration would engage in an open campaign against our organisation – especially in the week running up to the country's Duma elections last Sunday."

Regional Civic Organization in Defense of Democratic Rights and Liberties “GOLOS” $65,000To carry out a detailed analysis of the autumn 2010 and spring 2011 election cycles in Russia, which will include press monitoring, monitoring of political agita­tion, activity of electoral commissions, and other aspects of the application of elec­toral legislation in the long-term run-up to the elections. GOLOS will hold local and national press conferences and publish reports on its findings, as well as pro­vide detailed methodological advice to its monitors and other monitoring agencies.

ConclusionThe inseparable common thread between the patchwork of opposition groups now filling Russia's streets is their funding and support courtesy of the United States government and the National Endowment for Democracy. The mainstream Western media refuses to acknowledge this, and has been muted over the fact that the poll monitors reporting "corruption" and "election rigging" in the first place were also US NED-funded, including the frequently cited "Golos." When admissions are made, they are down-played, and words like "independent" are still used despite Golos' foreign-funding by a government clearly siding with Russia's opposition being a matter of record and illustrating an obvious conflict of interest.

When the media systematically omits the ties of the Russian opposition with the United States government who is facilitating their networks, NGOs, and political activity, a very real conspiracy exists. To uncover the ties between the US government and Russia's opposition is the duty of every journalist, to provide the unequivocal truth and to truly inform the public. Only with a properly functioning, honest, and dedicated corps of journalists can "democracy" actually function. While the US State Department squawks about promoting "true democracy" in Russia, the blinding hypocrisy emanating from the Wall Street-London financier occupied governments of the West gives it the hollowest of rings."